MOSES LAKE, Wash. --- By a margin of just 0.03 percent, voters in Moses Lake passed a $135.3 million construction bond for the Moses Lake School District.
To pass, the bond needed at least 60 percent of the vote. In the end, exactly 60.03 percent of residents voted to pass the bond.
The school district will use the money from the bond to build a new high school at the corner of Paxson Drive and West Valley Road.
They will also build a new elementary school on the southeast side of town and upgrade parts of the existing Moses Lake High School.
District officials said they hope to build and open the new high school by the 2021-2022 school year.
“We’ll be working with our construction management and contractors but that’s what we’re shooting for,” said Michelle Price, the Moses Lake School District superintendent.
The location of the new elementary school has not yet been decided, but administrators said they were focusing on the southeast side of town due to recent development in the area.
“We think that we can be in a new elementary school for the 2018-2019 school year,” Price said. “That’s our hope.”
The existing Moses Lake High School was most recently upgraded in 1995-1996.
“So it has been beat to heck since then,” said Price. “We have some big needs there.”
She explained they planned to upgrade the heating and air systems, replace the roof, repair the restrooms, and upgrade their science and career technical spaces at MLHS.
Price said they also planned to do a few cosmetic upgrades like replacing carpeting, tile and paint in a few areas.
